Slovenian Fire-Fighters' Museum Metlika

The museum was opened on 16 August 1969 on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of fire fighting in Slovenia. The founding organization of the museum was the Slovenian Fire Fighters Association and Metlika was chosen as the location of the museum because of the fact that the first volunteer fire fighters' association in Slovenia was established there on 18 September 1869.The historical heritage of fire fighting is presented in two exhibition areas in the Slovenian Fire Fighters' Museum in Metlika.The first area is located in the renovated and reorganised building of the former Metlika cinema near the castle. There are three exhibition areas. The Gallery is intended for presenting the development of fire fighting until the First World War. The Metlika fire brigade is presented as well as various historical materials from all over Slovenia, especially numerous fire fighting photos from the period before the First World War and the oldest fire-fighting newsletter. The visitors can see interesting helmets, fire fighters' hatchets, horns and trumpets, uniforms, awards, epaulettes, medals, and the small tools used by fire fighters. In the hall, visitors will find the founders of fire fighting in Slovenia as well as the documents and photographs from the period between the First and the Second World War and also after the Second World War.In the cellar area some old fire engines are displayed and also the fire fighters' equipment, which teaches us about some technical improvements. In the second part, the fire fighters' exhibition pavilion (the building on the right of the entrance into the castle) again the fire fighters' technical heritage is displayed. There is a collection of old fire engines from different parts of Slovenia. The oldest of them is the one from Grahovo near Cerknica dating from 1836, and the steam fire engine from Žalec, which was built in Vienna in 1908, is very interesting as well.